A blog launched on the 41st anniversary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the first pro-life organisation in the world, established on 11 January 1967. SPUC has been a leader in the educational and political battle against abortion, human embryo experimentation and euthanasia since then. I write this blog in my role as SPUC's chief executive, commenting on pro-life news, reflecting on pro-life issues and promoting SPUC's work.

Saturday, 26 November 2011

Vladamir Putin turns to Mary to halt Russia's population decline

Under the headline "Mother of God's Belt comes to Russia to help reverse population decline" The Freethinker The Voice of Atheism since 1881 has featured the news that Vladamir Putin, prime minister of Russia, received the Belt of the Mother of God "a revered Orthodox piece of antiquity" at St. Petersburg Airport.

Pictured above, behind Putin's left shoulder, is Vladamir Yakunin, president of Russian Railways since June 2005. I was the guest last month of Mr Yakunin at the Rhodes Forum, of which he is the founding president. He attended the Roundtable on population and the family, moderated by his wife, Natalya, which I was invited to address. Freethinker quotes Vladamir Yakunin thus:

"The belt of the Most Holy Virgin Mary possesses miraculous power. It helps women and helps in childbirth. In our demographic situation, this is … important."

Now whatever one might think about Mr Putin, he has every reason to be solemn at such an occasion for two reasons:

There's a huge spiritual revival in Russia which, unsurprisingly, has been reflected in the reception given by Russians to Belt of the Mother of God - as MercatorNet reports today.

Secondly, as MercatorNet highighted last week, Russia is experiencing a catastrophic decline in its population. They link to an important article in Foreign Affairs Magazine by the internationally renowned demographer Nicholas Eberstadt, which they rightly say everyone should buy and read in full.

Eberstadt's article begins:

"December marks the 20th anniversary of the end of the Soviet dictatorship and the beginning of Russia's postcommunist transition. For Russians, the intervening years have been full of elation and promise but also unexpected trouble and disappointment. Perhaps of all the painful developments in Russian society since the Soviet collapse, the most surprising -- and dismaying -- is the country's demographic decline. Over the past two decades, Russia has been caught in the grip of a devastating and highly anomalous peacetime population crisis. The country's population has been shrinking, its mortality levels are nothing short of catastrophic, and its human resources appear to be dangerously eroding."

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John Smeaton

About me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 33 years. I became director of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.

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